Project VerTTigo - 1964 Buick Skylark Turbo LS Convertible by Wasted Income

5 minute(s) of a 52 minute read

Well....$hit just got real....

Picked up a forged 383 LS shortblock for the Buick....built for boost. Figured it was for the best to sell the LS6 while it was still all in one piece and worth something. lol

K1 4340 forged stroker crank

K1 forged H-beam rods

Wiseco pistons and rings

ARP Everything

Clevite bearings

5-26-2015

Progress stalled a little bit as my wife and I had birthday stuff to do with our son and daughter, and I was also thrashing to get my own hot-rod ready for a big road trip I took with my buddys a couple weeks ago. Said roadtrip got me fired up to do some more work on the buick.

Turbos arrived!! They are Borg-Warner S360. T4 flange, 60mm compressor with a 68 mm turbine, and a .90 A/R. Should light up real fast on this 383, and make around 800 whp when turned up.

10/1/15

Progress has been slow for 2 reasons:

- Crazy busy summer
- I hate doing sheetmetal repair.

Finally got the trans tunnel modded and fabbed up to where I'm happy with the clearance around the 4L80E. What a pain...

11/11/15

Trans tunnel done, welded, ground smooth.








Decided to do solid motor mounts. Had my buddy make some aluminum inserts for the motor mounts to replace the poly bushings. I'll try to dig up some pics.

Playing around with where to locate the turbos. Lots of room up in the fender tips, but might try to get them moved back a bit to simplify the plumbing.

1/8/16

Ok, made a little more progress on this drawn out project. lol. 

Started working on the turbo headers, beginning with the collectors.

Cutting the 304 stainless to length.



Cut, cleaned up, beveled, and ready to go.





Saw fixture





Not bad for my first try





I'm happy with the internal fit-up





Tacked together





Finished product is pretty close to what I modeled in Creo. Modeling it helped me figure out the exact cut angles and position to get stuff how I wanted...huge time saver.

1/27/16

Started out with some simple water cut header flanges, but wanted some steps in them for positively locating the primaries around the ports, so I bored some steps.












Had been putting off starting on the trunk floor replacement...but in the words of the wise buddy of mine, "Sometimes you just gotta start cutting". So I did.








Spot welds ground and rust neutralizer in the supports where the media blaster won't get to.